Last Day of Orientation

Just like that, we are approaching our last day of orientation/training here in Sanxia, New Taipei City. While it's hard to believe that I have been here for almost a week and our Orientation is coming to an end, in some sense, the last few days have felt so much longer, perhaps due to all the things we have done in such a short time frame and all the new experiences we have been introduced to. I feel like I have known the people in my group for much longer than merely 4 days. As they have told us, "the people around you now will soon become your family here in Taiwan for the year to come." I sure do hope so.

For the past 2 days, we have spent most of our time in the classroom, being introduced to Taiwan, teaching English, learning Chinese, as well as important teaching strategies for the classroom. Last night, a group of us took a short trip to a supermarket called Carrefour, where we got to open our eyes to the Taiwanese food culture. While there were many familiar snack brands such as Oreo, Lay's chips, Ritz, Coca-Cola, etc., there were also many adaptations of new flavors we have yet seen in the United States. We found most fascinating snacks such as ice cream flavored Oreo cookies, chicken and seaweed flavored Lay's chips, and a vast variations of local brand products, local fruits, as well as more exotic food such as pig's blood cakes, pig's stomachs, and cow's tongues. Who would have thought going to the supermarket could be such an adventure!

Pig's blood cake

 Cow's tongues

 This actually leaves a cooling sensation in your mouth even a while after you eat it.

 Sold inside 7-Eleven store

We had another short day of class today to make room for our last excursion, also the one I have been looking forward to the most: visiting Sanxia Old Street. It's located not too far from our campus, so we ended up walking there. Due to the soon-to-come rain, the humidity pressed down on us as we walked. We were all drenched in sweat, but I soon forgot the discomfort, replaced by my excitement as we approached the Old Street district. Sanxia Old Street is a short segment of historic street, preserved in its early dated architecture. All along the two sides of the streets are gift shops, hand-craft shops, and snack stalls. The red brick buildings, arches, ancient wooden structures, all contribute to the nostalgic feel of the street. It definitely felt like going back in time strolling along that street.

We explored the street, tried different Taiwanese street food (even pig's blood cake), and I bought myself some cute handcrafted trinkets as souvenirs. We were then treated to a VERY elaborate dinner at a nearby restaurant by our program, where the food wouldn't stop coming until we were all stuffed. Now back in my room, it's time to pack up everything to get ready for our parting tomorrow. Tomorrow we will be meeting up with representatives from our schools and I will be going back to my designated location to see my apartment and the town for the first time, where I will be calling home for the next year. A bit sad to have to part with all the wonderful people I have met, but we will surely meet up again very soon. I will miss everyone and everything here a lot!

 Sanxia Old Street

 Ice cream on bull's horn shaped croissant

 Too-cute-to-resist toothbrush and toothpaste holder. I bought the cow one.

 Trying out pig's blood cake sprinkled with peanuts, not bad actually

 Purple peanuts

 Part of our elaborate dinner

 and...the food just kept coming

Birthday in Taiwan

So this is my very first birthday spent in Taiwan, and oh my, what an amazing day it has been! I really can't emphasize enough how nice and compassionate everyone here has been. Even though I never announced my birthday, words got out, and as a result, all my counselors and my colleagues celebrated my birthday in class this morning with a Chinese Happy Birthday song and a nice little surprise gift. Coincidentally, we only had half a day of class today, since we were scheduled to go on a cultural excursion this afternoon. After our vegetarian lunch (since it's Vegetarian Tuesday here on campus), we were told to meet up and were transported by a tour bus (fully equipped with a karaoke system, of course) to the New Taipei City Yingge Ceramics Museum. The museum was very nice, craftily designed, and I had a great time checking out all the artworks. They have a rather large collection of contemporary ceramic sculptures and installations, each unique and reflective in its own way. I just couldn't stop taking pictures of everything!

After our museum exploration, the real fun began! We were driven to a small shop in the Old Town, which specialized in indigo dyeing and offered a workshop for us to experiment with the dyeing process. Each of us was given a white handkerchief and we followed along as the instructor taught us how to tie our handkerchiefs to produce various designs and patterns. The process is very similar to tie-dyeing T-shirts. Once we have our handkerchiefs tied up the way we wanted, we proceeded to soak them in water, then dipped them into the indigo dye for several minutes until it turned a dark blue. Indigo dyeing is considered a traditional craft here in the Sanxia district. The blue colored dye actually came from the local goldfussia formosanus plants, which were soaked through the traditional sedimentation methods to acquire the deep blue hue. We got to create our own designs and all had wonderful results. It was a lot of fun and a truly unique experience.

We actually had tonight free, so a group of my colleagues and I decided to explore the bustling streets around our campus. Our first stop: a nearby cafe/pastry shop that we had passed by yesterday which had taunted us since with its delicious cakes galore. They got a nice little birthday cake for me and my birthday was once again celebrated. After our fill of cake and milk tea, we headed onward to discover the lively night scene on the streets of Taiwan and even came across several traditional temples and a historic district. Of course, more photos were taken before we all headed back to campus, exhausted from the long day.

This birthday has really turned out so much greater than I have imagined. I feel so blessed to be here right now. It really is a blessing to have had this opportunity to come to Taiwan and to meet all these wonderful people and see so many new things. I can't wait to see what other delights await.

The wind is howling outside my window right now. I really hope there won't be another typhoon coming in, for more exciting events are still ahead in the next couple of days.

 2012 FET's

 Street food

First Day in Taiwan!

Phew! What a long, yet fun and eventful day it has been for my very first day here in Taiwan!

My flight didn't arrive in Taipei until late last night, given a 2-hour delay. Thankfully, everything went smoothly with little trouble. I was picked up by a school representative holding a sign with my name on it. He was a most helpful man who drove me back to the NAER (National Academy for Educational Research) in New Taipei City, where I was greeted by more school representatives and my counselor. They took me to my dorm room, which is actually very nice and has all the accommodations I could have asked for (hot water shower, air conditioning, TV, hair dryer, internet, towel, and all kinds of toiletries). By the time I got settled in, it was past midnight, which left little time for anything else other than call home, shower and head to bed to get ready for the eventful day ahead.

Our first day of orientation kicked off with breakfast at 7:20am, where I got to meet all the other FET's (Foreign English Teachers) in the program; there are 19 of us in all in the program, from various states in the U.S. Each of us is designated to a different school in different counties in Taiwan. It was very nice meeting everyone and finding out their different backgrounds. Breakfast was nice, buffet-style with toasts, buns, eggs, ham, vegetables, soup, almond tea, and soy bean milk.

Since I came in late the night before, there wasn't much I could see around the town and campus, but as I stepped out of the room this morning, the sight almost took my breath away. The campus was on a beautiful ground, with a great architectural style, surrounded by quiet courtyards, lush green grass and vegetation, and lined with green mountains in the background. Coming from Houston where the land is completely flat, I just couldn't take my eyes off the mountains. Everything is so serene and beautiful here!

We had the morning off since the Opening Ceremony for Orientation didn't start until after lunch, at 1:40pm, so I after breakfast, I decided to grab my camera and treat myself to a mini photo-shoot around campus. We met up as a group with our counselors a bit later and hit the streets to go to the bank to exchange currency, as well as visited the local Watson's store (mini-Walmart) to buy whatever we needed. The streets here are bustling with store fronts, people, cars, and scooters. It really hit me then that I am actually here in Taiwan, in a completely different land. Though this is a foreign place for me, yet in a way, it holds so much familiarity since the bustling sight, the noise, the smell, the air, all reminded me so much of Vietnam, where I was born (except Vietnam has much more traffic). So I guess I will feel pretty much at home soon enough.

After lunch, which was served family-styled with 6 dishes and soup, we all gathered in a large classroom for our introduction to the orientation, opening ceremony, group pictures, followed by lessons on what to expect during our stay here in Taiwan, as well as a brief class on survival Chinese. Dinner tonight was hosted in the form of a Welcoming Party. We were graciously provided with pizzas, fried chicken, fries, chips, and fresh fruits. The official "party" started after dinner, where we played a series of icebreakers, learned to sing and dance clumsily to a popular Taiwanese song, and at last, the karaoke machine was pulled out and we spent the next few hours karaoke-ing.

I am really enjoying it here so far. The program seems very nicely organized, and the counselors are enthusiastic and helpful. I'm starting to feel much more at ease with how everything will work out.

Through my stay so far, I have picked up on several fascinating observations about Taiwan:
1. Taiwanese are obsessed with karaoke. We even have our own karaoke room on the 5th floor of our dorm!
2. Taiwanese are extremely environmental-friendly. We all have our little mugs to carry with us to all our meals so that we can reuse them instead of wasting paper cups. We also have to sort out all our trash into paper and plastic to recycle. Talk about building good habits!
3. The little truck coming through with music blaring does not sell ice cream, but is actually a garbage truck. Everyone has to take out their own trash here to throw in the truck as it comes by with the music.
4. Hello Kitty is EVERYWHERE! The country is pretty much infested with adorably cute cartoon characters.

It's getting late, and I really should head to bed for the even longer day tomorrow. Our orientation here lasts until this Friday, August 17th, from 7:20am-4:30pm each day. On the schedule tomorrow is lessons on English Language Teaching in Taiwan, more survival Chinese, Culture Shock, and Indigo Dyeing. That should be interesting...

Here are some photos from today:

 Dorm room (have the entire room to myself)

 

 Our dormitory building

 

 Beautiful scenery from our school building

 New Taipei City

 Courtyard

 Breakfast

 Breakfast buffet

Karaoke session